A plurality of nodes within a mesh network may be configured for multicast data forwarding. A multicast transmission by a node may be received by multiple nodes. Because the physical size of the network may exceed the transmission range for a given technology, the multicast packet(s) may require retransmission or multi-hop forwarding to more distant nodes.
However, while multicast data forwarding may efficiently transfer information, a number of potential inefficiencies may degrade performance. A first potential problem may result when not all nodes in the network require the same multicast information. Reports sent by nodes upstream may be used to indicate interest in joining a particular multicast group. While this obviates the need to transmit all multicast information to all nodes, inefficiencies may result from over- and under-transmission of reports. A second potential problem involves a frequency of forwarding of multicast data packets. Packets forwarded to downstream nodes with too high a frequency wastes bandwidth, while packets forwarded with too low a frequency may result in failure of nodes to receive desired data in required time. A third potential problem involves nodes leaving multicast forwarding tree because of “broken” communication links or links that have a poor transmission quality. Continued multicast transmission to such nodes wastes bandwidth, but efforts to correct the problem may also introduce inefficiencies. Accordingly, while multicast data forwarding potentially provides an efficient means of communication, a number of issues can introduce inefficiencies.